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There are quite a few good places in Starkville. Harvey steakhouse Walkons 44 Prime Buffalo wildwings and Applebees

How many restaurants not fast food in Starkville should I want to stop at Applebee's for example after or before the game. Food at the stadium is not of my choice.

Have you ever seen the fan bases of Columbia Poplarville or Louisville? Those are 4a schools who in the past when they have been in the title game brought more fans than the 5a 6a and 7a teams. And the volume of people is small when you are playing in a 60,000 seat stadium. Things were very smooth in Starkville last season. I am sure 5a 6a or 7a teams would not mind playing a noon game on a Saturday. I will use Hattiesburg as an example. Fans can leave around 7 or 8am for the 2.5 or 3hr drive. Game is played at 12 over by 3. Get out of the stadium by 330 and back on the road fans are home by 630pm no later than 8pmif you decide to stop and eat somewhere. So to me the 12pm Saturday game is best fan wise.

Fan engagement?

Clarion ledger has an article regarding Mississippi latest Census Data. There is a shift in population towards the suburbs and the coast.

GC beat OG during Covid when they had recruits from 3 districts all converge for 1 season… didn’t have to contact trace like the public schools did and even still they had to use some questionable tactics to beat OG. That 1 example is not a great one if you’re trying to show that private schools “can compete” with public schools on a regular basis

A month in a row of no home games is suckish. Long stints of every weekend at home followed by long stints of away does very little for fan engagement

5, 6, 7 A should always be: one on Friday night and 2 on Saturday (anytime) simply to help with the volume of people in and out of the venue. Then let the other 4 classes rotate in the other open spots on Thursday/Friday/Saturday. Planning this way - with fans travel in mind & making the experience the best it can be for the largest volume of people should be a priority. Not to mention the fact that the host town will do better economically when large fan bases come and stay.

Another big portal add this evening with Allen from LA Tech. Probably the best arm they’ve added this portal cycle. We’re along way away from the 2027 season but feels like you can probably count on State being in the preseason Top 5 or so. Gotta say it’s refreshing to see what Oak has done in the portal after years of Lemonis being not very good at it for the most part.

Look for 7a to play on Thursday next season. It was on Saturday last season and on Friday this season. 4a 6a was on Friday last season and Thursday this season. So look for it to be on Saturday next season

I have no issues with it. I knew it was coming eventually. Those other classes do deserve that 7pm Friday night and Saturday night spot. And i kinda like the idea of playing at 12 noon on a Saturday if Hattiesburg made it and the 6a title game was scheduled for that day

issues?

Gonna hate the year when 7A rotates to Thursday.

Ricky Black had to be #1

But even when we were up 7 I did not feel comfortable. Georgia just had our number this year. Simple as that. We were also down a nickel in game two and fought our way back into it. Georgia used up all their energy and good karma to beat us and I think it definitely affected their performance in Omaha.

State was also up a TD in game one as well. A good bullpen would have used that size of a cushion as leverage.

I didn't seem to find Howard Willoughby in the top 25 at the end of the video. I would have thought he would have made it. Glad to see Jack Carlisle make it though.

I like Bauer and Miller, think they can become really good. Davis had moments but was inconsistent. Most of that group though, very blah. I think you could tell a month or two before the postseason that State’s season would end via bullpen failure, and that’s how it played out. Blew late leads in both of the Super Regional games.

It appeared late that they had 6 or 8 pen arms but had no confidence in any of them. Maybe all those guys were all hype and not good enough for that level of ball.

The Varsity Voices Podcast guys are back with a list of the greatest high school football coaches in Mississippi history? This episode ranks an official Top 10 based on overall accomplishments, state championships, program building, player development, and long-term impact on the game in Mississippi.

I think their older arms weren’t that good and their best arms were inexperienced. Also the bullpen was hurt mightily by the combination of McPherson getting hurt and Charlie Foster (transferring to OM, BTW), being totally and completely unreliable. Duke Stone started the year as one of their top two bullpen options and pretty quickly had to become their Saturday starter. That definitely trickled down to hurt the pen in a negative way.

I will put more of it on the pitchers. Coach can prepare them but it is up to the pitcher to perform. Too often, wildness and inconsistency were our bullpen problems. I think we will see an improvement there next year.

4a 6a on Thursday Dec 3 2a 7a. Friday. Dec 4 1a 3a 5a Saturday Dec 5

What if any part of the drop off in the bullpen was due to Parker? were the guys simply not as good as their high ratings?

2027 should be another good year with a more realistic shot at going to Omaha. With Coach O’Connor and the staff (except Parker who was already here) having a year under their belt, the continuity of the staff and players will be better. If you look at the beginning of the season, our lineup was quite different from what it was later in the year. Next February, I believe that we will have a more settled lineup, though with the depth we will have, it will give Coach the luxury of playing more guys situationally. As I mentioned previously on different occasions, we were a top fifteen team this year. Next year I think we can be a top ten team with the potential of winning it all. But we know how difficult that is to accomplish.